The Middle School Mary Poppins Podcast

46 Episodes

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MSMP Bedtime Prayer for Bend, Oregon Tonight

2026-10-1602:33

A quiet bedtime prayer and audio hug for the children, families, educator, and community of Bend, Oregon. Tonight, we simply hold them close in our hearts and send love, comfort, and kindness.

S4 EP4: 2 Life Truths & a Lie: Critical Thinking Brain Training Game - Week 2

2026-10-1332:54

2 Life Truths and a Lie: Busting Cognitive Distortions - Critical Thinking Brain Training Pt. 2What if your brain is telling you a story that feels completely true… but isn’t?In Season 4, Episode 4 of The Middle School Mary Poppins Podcast, we continue our Critical Thinking Brain Training series with a game of Two Life Truths and a Lie.This week, we’re exploring some of the most common thinking traps middle schoolers face, including catastrophizing, mind reading, personalization, all-or-nothing thinking, emotional reasoning, and the spotlight effect.We’ll also talk about why adolescence can make emotions and social situations feel so intense, how the developing brain processes those experiences, and how to slow down long enough to ask:What do I actually know? What am I assuming? What evidence do I have? Could there be another explanation?And of course, Lt. Steve is serving as our official lie detector doggie friend. This episode is designed for tweens, teens, parents, educators, and caregivers who want practical ways to strengthen critical thinking, emotional regulation, and self-awareness.Next week: consent, boundaries, body autonomy, and respect.Download This Week’s FREE MSMP Family Pack with a Leveled-Up Group Challenge:https://drive.google.com/file/d/16a_SMceMwZH5OL6pdbcvnz56Gtc1wQaf/view?usp=drivesdkVisit msmarypoppins.com for more episodes & resources. Email: [email protected]#MiddleSchoolMaryPoppins #CriticalThinking #CognitiveDistortions #MiddleSchool #Tweens #Teens #ParentingTweens #ParentingTeens #EmotionalRegulation #MentalHealthForKids #BrainTraining #GrowthMindset #SocialEmotionalLearning #SEL #MiddleSchoolParents #Teachers #Educators #TeenMentalHealth #TweenMentalHealth #PodcastForParents

S4 EP3: Let’s Get Critical! Are You Smarter Than an Eighth Grader?

2026-10-0536:42

MSMP Family Game Week begins with seven verbal brain games designed for middle schoolers, parents, teachers, and anyone else who wants to play along.Inspired by our field trip to Creature Features in Athens, Tennessee, these puzzles feature Drift the Arctic fox, Coco the capybara, Willow the wallaby, Maisie the Highland cow, a possibly innocent kangaroo, and Lieutenant Steve—who has somehow gained access to the prize vault.Along the way, we explore what is happening inside the developing middle-school brain and practice critical-thinking strategies such as examining evidence, questioning assumptions, eliminating possibilities, building mental models, and changing approaches when the first strategy doesn’t work.Josh from Canada also asks which games can help middle schoolers become stronger thinkers. We discuss mysteries, riddles, chess, logic puzzles, strategy games, escape rooms, brain-supporting foods—and whether blueberries can actually make algebra easier.Play in the car, around the dinner table, in a classroom, or anywhere your family could use a brain workout. No worksheets required.Critical thinking isn’t something you either have or don’t have. It is a collection of skills that grows through practice.Find episode updates and practical resources at MSMaryPoppins.com.Stop. Regulate. Listen. And stay clever, little foxes.

S4 EP2: Living in a Material World - Spotlight People, Scapegoats, & Staying Clever

2026-09-1527:12

What happens when someone seems to value your talent, creativity, or helpfulness more than they value you?In “Living in a Material World: Spotlight People, Scapegoats, and Staying Clever,” I explore something I desperately needed an adult to explain when I was young: other people do not necessarily think the way you do. That does not mean everyone is bad, and it certainly does not mean kids should become frightened or suspicious. It means we can keep our good hearts while learning to notice patterns, set boundaries, and choose carefully who receives access to our time, trust, and ideas.We talk about “spotlight people,” the surprising strengths often found in the person who becomes the scapegoat, and why being useful to someone is not the same as being valued by them. For neurodivergent kids—and every helper, fixer, creative engine, and brave truth-teller—this episode offers permission to remain kind without measuring self-worth by how much you can do for everyone else.This week’s kid question takes us to India and gives Lieutenant Steve an opportunity to demonstrate his most important superpower. We also explore why animals can feel especially safe to neurodivergent young people, why support is a verb, and why my granny loved to say, “In Dog We Trust.”This is a hopeful flashlight conversation—not a warning siren. There is also Madonna, Dolly Parton, a Disney-villain detour, and a dog guarding the bedroom from invaders who never arrive.Recommended for middle schoolers ages 10–15 and the parents, educators, counselors, and caregivers who love them.Visit https://msmarypoppins.com for more about the podcast and upcoming downloadable materials that will help families, teachers, and young people carry these ideas into real life.Stay clever, little foxes. 🦊💜☂️🍪

S4 EP1: True Colors: Potentiality & 8 Hidden Superpowers for a Brand-New School Year 🌈💎

2026-09-0353:11

TRUE COLORS: 8 Hidden Superpowers for a Brand-New School Year 🌈💎Season 4 is here! 🎉 And we’re starting with a radical idea: what if some of the things we’re quickest to label as “problems” in middle schoolers are actually unfinished strengths?In this episode, Suzanne explores potentiality—the difference between what something is right now and what it still has the capacity to become.Because an argumentative kid might be developing the persistence of an advocate. A hyper-observant kid may be building extraordinary social intelligence. An overexplainer might someday become a powerful communicator. And the kid who feels everything may not need less empathy—they may need help learning how to use that empathy without carrying everybody else’s emotions.Through middle school sociology, developmental science, classroom stories, a nearly indestructible Asheville geode, Holes, a few cognitive distortions, and Lieutenant Steve’s absolutely unforgivable excavation of a practically brand-new queen-sized memory foam mattress 🐶😂, we uncover eight hidden superpowers:🧠 Discernment and knowing which battles matter👀 Reading the social world👂 Deep listening🗣️ Communication, argument & advocacy🧰 Resourcefulness: being competent, capable & connected❤️ Empathy with healthy boundaries⚖️ The justice detector🌱 Knowing who you are without abandoning yourself to fit in This is not about pretending trauma is a gift or telling kids that everything happens for a reason. Trauma is not the superpower.It’s about asking a much more useful question:Now what?What can we build with what’s already here? What skill might be hiding underneath a difficult behavior? What happens when adults stop confusing unfinished with incapable?As a new school year begins, last year’s evidence does not get to write this year’s conclusion. Your middle schooler is still becoming—and there are entire parts of them they haven’t even met yet.💎 Stop looking for bruised apples. Start looking for geodes.And next week: Spotlight People—big egos, emotional gravity, manipulation, boundaries, and what happens when everybody else starts organizing themselves around one person’s spotlight.Stop. Regulate. Listen.And stay clever, little foxes. 🦊[email protected]://www.facebook.com/share/1HxRVp9juV/?mibextid=wwXIfrhttps://youtube.com/@middleschoolmarypoppinspodcast?si=lHbYdjE5OxnYxV_mTopics: middle school • tweens • teens • parenting • back to school • adolescent development • emotional regulation • neurodivergence • empathy • anxiety • resilience • social intelligence • self-esteem • boundaries • advocacy • executive functioning • parenting teens • parenting tweens • teachers • educators

#box-pro-ellipsis-179221176031160{-webkit-line-clamp:2;}The Middle School Mary Poppins Podcast